Many bloggers and posters are agog at the restrictions eBay has placed on the listings for presale Playstation 3 and Wii consoles. The rules, however, have not made a dent in the number of game machines up for sale.

Sony Computer Entertainment America

As of Thursday afternoon, there were 3,144 listings for "PS3" and related items, and eBay had listed the Playstation 3 as the "It" item of the day. Listings for the Wii, due out November 19, numbered 2,189 and bids went as high as $2,000 for one console that came with 6 games and "extras." The Playstation 3, which ranges from $500 to $600 retail and is being released Thursday at midnight, has bids as high as $3,550.

The rules for selling the soon-to-be-unleashed consoles on eBay are one PlayStation 3 and one Wii console listing per eBay account for a seller with a 98 percent or better feedback score from at least 50 buyers. Qualified sellers must also post a photo of their preorder receipt on the listing, and cannot list the console as a "Buy It Now" or one-day listing.

About the author

In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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